LUSH Vibrance Liquid Lipstick Review, Photos, Swatches

Too Gritty to Call It True Love

LUSH Vibrance Liquid Lipstick ($22.95 for 0.20 oz.) is described as a “shimmering, golden orange.” It’s a brightened tangerine orange with lighter, golden orange shimmer/glitter. OCC Banjee is similar in color to the lighter shimmer, but it’s an opaque lip color with no shimmer. I couldn’t think of anything that came that close. You would better be able to achieve a look like this by wearing an orange lipstick and pairing it with a gold-shimmered gloss.

It was somewhat challenging trying to figure out what exactly the formula was supposed to do, so I referred to the original press release. I gathered these should be hydrating, fairly pigmented, and leave lips soft post-application. The color coverage is semi-sheer to semi-opaque, but it’s rather uneven. The shimmer/glitter felt noticeably gritty, and the particles seemed to gravitate towards each other in bunches, which contributed to the uneven application. It had a watery consistency–thin, loose–but it felt more like a lipstick once it dried down on the lips.

I didn’t detect any scent or taste while testing it for wear. It managed four hours, but there was some stray glitter/shimmer that had traveled outside of my lip area. Not drying, not hydrating, but the grittiness of the sparkle made it uncomfortable to wear. It’s housed in a glass bottle with a doe-foot applicator attached to the black screw-top lid. The applicator doesn’t reach the bottom of the jar, so if you end up using the majority, you may not be able to reach the bottom (try using a separate lip brush or turn it upside down in a sample container).

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crystallinity

I actually had better luck with this shade, but I will say, of the ones I tried, different colors are absolutely formulated differently. My favorite one so far is Confident.

Bubbly and Believe. Mostly, I like how true-to-color they stay. Confident is my favorite because most maroon/blue-based dark colors turn the same stupid color of berry on me, and this one holds true. i never noticed a grittyness before, but now that you mention it I’ve put it on my lips and find that perhaps there is a slight texture to it. It isn’t enough to really bother me. The girls in the store were also using all the lip colors as blushes and highlighters, which was one of the reasons I picked up Vibrance. I like all the ones I bought, but I may not be as discerning over glitter texture as some.

LOOOVE the color on your lips. But at that price, the lipstick would need to blow you out of the water for me to consider purchasing. Uncomfortable glitter and difficult to work with just doesn’t cut it at $22 a pop…

Wow! That actually looks great on you! Especially with the blue eyeliner and shirt. I never would have thought an orange, sparkly lip gloss would actually work on anyone. For what it is, the price is a bit too steep for me to give it a whirl right now, but secret santa is coming up soon!

So sorry to bother u Christine but i posted some questions and now i dont see the comments i made 🙁 anyways i wanted to ask u how does the middle eastern collection lipstick Mehr compare to Rouge coco chanel in Camelia?

That sucks. I like Lush as a whole. Maybe because of their whole eco-friendly/vegan slant that the formula doesn’t work very well? But wait if OCC has pretty much perfected vegan lip color…I’m so confused. I hope this is just a rookie mistake and Lush will correct the gritty problem in their next formulation.

The range is lovely! A bit tricky to use, because all of the products feel rather liquid, but once you figure out how they apply best on you, you’re sorted. (The eyeshadows are definitely easiest as a wash of colour, but workable into anything else.)

It still looks glorious on you! I have tried a few of their new lip colours and they all had great colour pay off and fabulous staying power. This is probably one of the weakest products in the range. Are you going to review the cream eye shadows as well? 🙂

The non-shimmer ones go on very creamy and almost slick. They look a bit glossy at first, but then they set really well. I didn’t find them drying or hydrating, but they feel like a matte or colour stay lipstick on the lips. The colour lasts quite well through eating and drinking.

The red lip creams have a strong blue base and can stain quite a bit, especially Passionate and Drive. Drive is a lot more wearable than it looks in the bottle though.

Believe is a lovely bright coral. I think it’s my fave so far. I think Strong would look great on you, it’s a really bright orangy red with decent shine. Glamorous is a bubble gum pink with a strong blue base. Charm has a rather white base and applied a bit unevenly, but layered over a lip balm I liked the overall effect. Bubbly and Perspective were a bit too frosted for my taste. Vibrance was too glittery and I HATE migrating glitter. 🙁 Confident was too dark for me.

I quite like the little glass bottles and if you take out the rubber ring at the mouth of the bottle, I think you’ll be able to get most of the product out once it runs down.

I was also quite surprised by the staying power of the cream shadows. I have quite oily lids, but applied over UD Primer Potion they really stayed put! Wearing only one cream shade at a time works best though, as I found it difficult to blend different shades once the colour had set.

I love this colour so much, I could actually protest for a non-glitter version. It’s beautiful.

I adore this line though. The colours are amazing even if they product is tricky, and IDEC, I love the silly gimmicky way the colour wheel works. I would have never tried Intuitive if they didn’t use that thing.

Going off the website because I don’t have stuff to hand ATM – and I haven’t gotten around to collecting all the shades yet. >>

Intuitive : Eyeshadow : Lovely “Golden Lime Green” (site description) that I keep pairing with Forever Turquoise Colour Tattoo Calm : Eyeliner : Pastel Baby Blue, because I love weird eyeliner colours so much. Control : Eyeliner : Navy blue. Saw one of the SA’s at Lush wearing it and fell head over heels. Ack, there’s this lovely peachy-pink I saw someone wearing too but the name escapes me entirely rn. I did find with the eyeshadow that it definitely needs layering, or it creases.

The bronzer/skin tint is supposed to be really lovely too, as it matches your skintone regardless. And I do enjoy their foundation/colour supplement, though it’s a bit thick.

I’m really surprised by how pretty this color is in use. I still can’t get over the terrible packaging (IMO, the dropper-style bottle is cute but looks incredibly awkward and wasteful), but it turned out prettier than I thought it would have. I thought it was going to be another wacky color that didn’t look very good in actual use, but it looks very good with your coloring, Christine. Too bad the grit and formula were so bad, though.

I have to say that as much as I love the idea of Lush products, I’ve found that their products contain a heck of a lot of sulfates and parabens, which is disappointing when you consider how the company and products are marketed as being fresh, organic, and natural.

a heck of a lot is saying a bit much I think, SLS never comes as high up in the list of ingredients as in pretty much every other product out there, and the parabens are the safest ones there are and in the very bottom of the ingredient lists = the least quantitative ingredient. a lot of people crap about sls and parabens without thinking what other companies use instead. phenoxyethanol for instance, a looot of people get allergic reactions to this as a preservative. As long as products contain any amount of water, they’re gonna need some preservative. I prefer things that have been around for quite some time, which mean you know about them.

True, but I still think it’s somewhat misleading to market a line of products as “natural” when they contain ingredients that a good portion of the “natural product” world considers to be unsafe. I personally find it to be a little disingenuous of the company.

I ran across it last year when looking for a Christmas present for a family member. She’s pretty militant about labeling and ingredients, and to be quite honest, she’s somewhat difficult and picky, so she’s hard to shop for. I thought about Lush and went by a store. Once I started reading the labels, though, I realized that there wasn’t a single thing in the store that I could buy her. I wound up having to go to a Whole Foods store to find something to give her.

i think lush is doing a pretty good job on their use of “natural” ingredients and sourcing the best quality products like lavender from france and the worlds best rose from turkey.. you can only go so far in natural products.. if your asking for more, than thats something like poisen ivy..yeah thats natural but that doesnt mean you should put it on your skin.. im still shocked how many companies like loreal still use mineral oil..

I love Lush, but I am not happy with the Emotional Brilliance range. I love the cute little bottles. I purchased a liquid lipstick in Strong (an orangey red similar to MAC So Chaud) and a liquid eyeliner in Control (realllllly pretty indigo/navy color.) I returned them both… and I NEVER return things. The liquid lipsticks are definitely drying. Strong didn’t have any glitter in it so it wasn’t gritty, but I was not a fan of the texture. And the eyeliner, man…. it was sheer, took forever to dry, and actually burned my eyes. That was very odd to me because I don’t have sensitive eyes by any means, and the range is promoted as being gentle. Oh well!

The colour looks *spectacular* on you, esp. with that sunshine-y eyeshadow (the L’Oreal, I presume), the Bobbi Brown coral blush and the teal top. It’s a shame about the grittiness. I also can’t get over that incredibly tiny, short applicator. What a nuisance in the long run.

Hi Christine. My sister gifted me with Ambition, a rich true red, a few days ago and I am in love. It is the only Lush lipstick I’ve tried so far, but it is ridiculously comfortable and gorgeous to wear. I did have slight issues with feathering when worn solo, but it is easily corrected with a liner. It’s a shame about Vibrance’s texture because it looks amazing on you despite being such an unexpected color.

I actually tried that same color on at my local LUSH store a week or so ago. I agree with what you’re saying about the grittiness. Also, I couldn’t get it as opaque as you did. It was an uneven, streaky light orange. Did you put on multiple layers? (BTW: It’s a pretty color on you!)

ITA! I purchased ‘Believe’ (matte coral in a thick, creamy texture) and found it to be very pigmented both when used on the lips or as a blush. However it did leave my lips dry quite quickly after application :-s Will try wearing a transparent lipgloss on top of it next time!

Actually this line is kind of a hit or miss. Different colors have different formulas and i still have to understand WTH where they thinking.

Anyway i tried them all [the joys of being a Lushie] and i must admit some are meh, but others are really wonderful. My faves are Bubbly, Believe, Decisive and Perspective for the lips, Motivation used as a mascara, Focus, Qietly motivated and Fantasy for the eyes! =D

Hi Christine, I really hate Lush, since January of this year, with cleaning products caused me a horrible dermatitis, which was three months without using any product and very alert the immune system for any reason I am filled with pimples and redness .. So I’ll never wear a Lush product, but appreciate that their products are cruelty free.

I hope my experience will serve them and take care, natural is not always as healthy for our skin, we are each a different world

I’ve never heard from this product before. Thanks Christine for reviewing it. It looks interesting, although this is not the colour I would pick. I would be interested in see your review on other colours.

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